Huayu 1992, my entertainment era

Chapter 97 I was hit by money

Since the 1980s, the most famous record companies in Hong Kong have occupied the largest market share.

Those are undoubtedly the four major record companies.

PolyGram, Warner, EMI, and TVB's Huaxing Records.

These four record companies almost monopolize more than 70 percent of Hong Kong singers.

Among them, although EMI is not the strongest, it has also had popular singers such as Roman Tam and Danny Chan.

Even when Andy Lau first started out as a singer, he was signed with EMI Records.

However, after entering the 1990s, EMI's position in Hong Kong and the entire Chinese music scene was gradually weakened.

First, in 89, Danny Chan returned to EMI again and then jumped back to Warner Records.

Later this year, Roman Tam's record contract with EMI ended, and EMI no longer had any major players under its command.

Oh! Yes, in 1992, EMI signed Singaporean singer Eric Moo, and released "A Dream in the Red Dust" this year, which became popular in Southeast Asia. It can be said that they still have a good general.

However, compared to PolyGram which has Leon Lai and Jacky Cheung, and Warner which now has Andy Lau and Aaron Kwok, EMI Records obviously does not have a singer who can officially take the lead.

Zhou Ziheng, who was able to compete with Jacky Cheung and Wakin Chau in the Mandarin record market last year, undoubtedly succeeded in attracting the attention of this declining record company.

As Zhou Ziheng's thoughts turned, he looked up and asked Huo Wenxi, "Is anyone from EMI coming over?"

"Yes, Nie Anda is on his way to Guangzhou. He asked you to talk to him this afternoon." Florence Hui nodded.

"I see. You can ask him to come directly after he arrives in Guangzhou."

Zhou Ziheng was very interested in what EMI said was the bargaining chip that surpassed all other record companies.

In addition, EMI Records actually fits Zhou Ziheng's idea of ​​a record distribution company.

Although this record company is under great pressure from PolyGram and Warner in the Chinese-speaking regions.

But it is very powerful in the global market. In Europe, the United States and other places, PolyGram and Warner Records were even defeated by it.

Among them, in terms of distribution channels, he is also the most perfect cooperation target in Zhou Ziheng's mind.

Whether it is Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan or South Korea, their distribution channels are not inferior to companies like PolyGram.

"Brother Xiaolin, I'm sorry to have kept you waiting for so long."

Returning to the reception room from outside, Zhou Ziheng said with an apologetic look on his face.

"You're welcome. That's how a company boss is. He's extremely busy with all kinds of affairs. It's the same for me in the entertainment industry. I'm involved in all kinds of things every day.

If it weren't for the fact that your record is so important that I had to come here in person, I wouldn't have had the chance to take a break from my busy schedule!"

Li Xiaolin looked like he didn't mind.

"Then stay for a few more days. I'll ask someone to take you around Guangdong tomorrow." Zhou Ziheng laughed.

"That's not necessary. The company has a lot of things to do, and I am destined to be a hard worker. Can't I take a break?"

Li Xiaolin shook his head, then brought the topic back to the point, "Two million, seven hundred thousand, Hengzi, this price is the highest price we can offer.

If it's any higher, we won't make any money. As long as you agree, Yi Neng Film will tailor a movie for you and guarantee that the investment is no less than five million."

Hearing this, Zhou Ziheng couldn't help but curl his lips.

This Li Xiaolin is really good at talking nonsense. He can't make any money, but he should have made a fortune.

Also, a movie with an investment of no less than five million.

This is indeed a great temptation.

But if Zhou Ziheng really wants to act, several major film companies in Hong Kong should still be willing to invest five million in him to make a movie with him as the protagonist.

It can be said that this is not a bargaining chip at all.

Shaking his head, Zhou Ziheng said, "This price is definitely not acceptable to me. I think this record is worth more than this price. Brother Xiaolin, you can call back and discuss it with the senior management of your company."

Zhou Ziheng was really disappointed with Entertainment Dynamic Music.

It was obvious that my last album made them a lot of money, but they still said they didn't make much.

When bargaining, the price was only increased by hundreds of thousands.

I feel like they totally think they are fools.

After talking for a long time, the only offer was 2.7 million.

This price is definitely extremely high among the current record releases of mainland singers.

But you have to know that just two days ago, Warner contacted Zhou Ziheng, and their first offer was three million, which was higher than what Yien had been negotiating for the whole morning.

Feeling disappointed with Yineng Dongyin, Zhou Ziheng lost interest in talking to them.

As if sensing Zhou Ziheng's dissatisfaction and perfunctory attitude, Li Xiaolin quickly took the initiative to say goodbye and left Ziheng's studio.

Zhou Ziheng personally sent him downstairs.

In front of the taxi, Li Xiaolin looked back and saw that Zhou Ziheng went upstairs and did not get in the car to go back to the hotel immediately.

Instead, he took out his phone and called Zhang Guozhong.

"Lao Zhang, I'm afraid we have to offer a higher price. Zhou Ziheng must have received a better offer from other companies.

He was totally indifferent to two and a half million.”

“It should be Warner. I just received news that they made an offer of three million to Zhou Ziheng.

Go talk to Zhou Ziheng tomorrow, I'll give you permission, as long as the price doesn't exceed four million, you can get it."

……

"How did the negotiation go? How much is Yi Neng willing to offer?" When he returned to his office, Florence Hui was already waiting there.

“There was no sincerity at all. In the end, they were only willing to pay 2.7 million. I felt like they were just paying beggars.

They don’t really think I can only cooperate with them!”

Zhou Ziheng said speechlessly.

"Humph! I've already said that Entertainment will not offer a price higher than Warner's, but you still don't believe me."

Florence Hui snorted coldly.

Although Zhou Ziheng met Florence Hui through entertainment, he was still the agent assistant arranged for Zhou Ziheng by the entertainment industry at that time.

But Zhou Ziheng later found out that Florence Hui had not been working in the entertainment industry for long.

At that time, the entertainment industry was recruiting an agent assistant for Zhou Ziheng, but the company did not have a suitable candidate, so they could only place a recruitment advertisement in the newspaper.

It just so happened that Florence Hui wanted to work in this industry, so she applied for the job, was successfully accepted, and was assigned to Zhou Ziheng.

Since she had just joined the company, it was effortless for Zhou Ziheng to recruit her.

At the same time, she has no feelings for entertainment, let alone speaking for it.

"I think EMI should give you a price that satisfies you.

Nie Anda is the executive director and music director of EMI Asia. His personal visit shows their sincerity.”

Huo Wenxi analyzed.

"We have to talk to find out if they are sincere. Isn't Li Xiaolin also the president of Entertainment Dynamic Music? But he doesn't have much sincerity."

Although Zhou Ziheng had expectations, he was not too decisive in thinking that EMI would be willing to offer better conditions.

As the two were talking, Huo Wenxi's phone suddenly rang.

Huo Wenxi looked at the phone number and said, "It's Nie Anda. He should have arrived."

As she spoke, she answered the phone, said a few words and hung up, "He's here, he's already downstairs."

"Then let's go down and greet him together. I still respect this person very much."

Nie Anda, the name is Chinese.

But this person is actually a foreigner, a Swede.

This is a foreigner who loves Chinese culture very much.

In the 1970s, he founded the "Ming" band, which was very Chinese in style, with men wearing long gowns and women wearing cheongsams. In the 1970s, when English songs were more popular and Cantonese songs had not yet become popular, their band's English songs dominated the Hong Kong pop music charts for a long time.

He is extremely talented in creation. He was not only a famous singer in the 1960s and 1970s, but also a famous songwriter, musician, program host and actor.

He has collaborated with Gu Jiahui, Huang Zhan and others to create numerous pop songs and film and television music, and has participated in numerous international music composition competitions, winning numerous awards.

Among them, we must mention "Mr. Vampire", which won the Best Music Award at the 1986 Hong Kong Film Awards.

Nie Anda joked that he had a date with zombies. The first band he formed when he was 12 was called the Zombie Band. Unexpectedly, 30 years later, "Mr. Zombie" won an award.

In addition to music, Nie Anda is also very business-minded.

After moving behind the scenes, he worked as the director of program artist management at EMI.

During his tenure, he invested heavily in building EMI's recording studio and recorded many classic songs from the 70s, such as those by George Lam, Roman Tam, Frances Sylvia Chang, and so on.

It launched and made many singers famous in the 70s.

What impressed Zhou Ziheng the most was that, in that era when singing English songs was the mainstream, he was the first to sense the market for Cantonese songs, and he persuaded some songwriters such as James Wong and some singers such as Roman Tam.

Advise them to create more songs that belong to their own national culture.

The English songs they create or sing can never compare to those of foreigners because of the cultural gap.

Instead, they can play to their strengths when they compose or sing Cantonese songs.

As it turned out, Hong Kong did become dominated by Cantonese songs. Wong James was later very grateful to Nie Anda for reminding him on this point. He said that if it were not for Nie Anda pointing him in the right direction and encouraging him to compose Cantonese songs, he might have been obsessed with and struggled forward with English songs, which he was not good at, for a long time.

"Zhou, nice to meet you!"

Zhou Ziheng met this legendary foreigner downstairs in Ziheng's studio.

He was very enthusiastic and came up to hug Zhou Ziheng the first time he saw him.

"Mr. Nie Anda, I am also very happy to meet you. I admire your achievements in music."

Zhou Ziheng smiled and hugged him.

“Thank you. I think you are a genius more than I do. You are only 21 years old, but you have already created a lot of songs that everyone sings.

Before I came to Guangzhou, I told other senior executives of the company that you would be the most promising Chinese singer and songwriter of this era.

In a few years, your name will definitely remain in the history of Chinese pop music."

Nie Anda said as he went upstairs under the guidance of Zhou Ziheng and Huo Wenxi.

This foreigner speaks Cantonese very well.

What made Zhou Ziheng even happier was his praise.

Anyone would be happy to be praised by someone who holds a pivotal position in the Hong Kong music scene, and to be praised by someone who is the most influential person in the music industry.

"Thank you very much for the compliment, but there are many people in the Hong Kong music scene who don't like me."

Zhou Ziheng smiled.

“Those people don’t know shit, like you said, they are just a bunch of movers.

This is like a student who cheats on his homework mocking his deskmate for insisting on doing his own homework.

Shame on them. Sooner or later they will realize how ridiculous their plagiarism is."

It was not known whether he was trying to please the porters or was really dissatisfied with the porter trend in Hong Kong, but Nie Anda openly mocked the porters in Hong Kong.

"Mr. Nie Anda, would you like some tea?"

Arriving at the reception room, Zhou Ziheng asked.

"Of course, I like tea very much. My favorite is Longjing tea. The feeling of the lingering fragrance surrounding the mouth is really great."

Nie Anda said with a look of aftertaste.

Seeing this, Zhou Ziheng immediately asked Huo Wenxi to arrange for someone to serve tea.

"Oh, by the way, Zhou, I brought you a gift this time!"

Just after sitting down, Nie Anda suddenly said.

"Oh?" Zhou Ziheng immediately looked at him with interest.

He had received many people in this reception room, but this foreigner was the first person to bring him a gift.

Nie Anda took out a piece of paper from the treasure and handed it to Zhou Ziheng.

“That’s my gift to EMi Records.”

"This..." Zhou Ziheng was surprised when he received the gift he mentioned.

This is a check.

There were a lot of zeros on it, and Zhou Ziheng confirmed it again and again, and finally confirmed that it was a check for five million Hong Kong dollars.

"Zhou, you don't need to say anything more. I told you, this is a gift. Whether our conversation is pleasant or not, it's yours.

You just sign your name and take it to any Swiss bank and you can withdraw the five million dollars inside.

Nie Anda interrupted Zhou Ziheng and said.

"Mr. Nie Anda, your gift is too expensive. I'm sorry I can't accept it." Zhou Ziheng pushed the check back.

To be honest, Zhou Ziheng is completely confused now.

This was the first time someone threw money at him, five million at that.

He has never made so much money since his debut.

Do rich people do this?

However, although the number on the check made Zhou Ziheng excited, he could not accept it.

Taking the money means he has to cooperate with EMi.

He doesn't even know how the other party is going to cooperate with him.

If the other party’s cooperation conditions are very poor, will he cooperate if you take the money?
If you don't cooperate, he's already taken the money.

In cooperation, if the other party's conditions are too bad, he may have to give it back.

"Zhou, I know your concerns." Nie Anda did not take the check back, but took out a contract and another check.

“That check was our gift, and we don’t have the habit of taking back gifts we give.

This is the purpose of my visit today.

This is a contract drawn up by our EMi. As long as you sign it, this check is yours. It is your signing fee. "

Zhou Ziheng glanced at the check behind him and couldn't help but twitch his lips.

The number on this one is bigger.

Ten million.

Plus the check for five million next to it, EMi is going to throw money at him!

But why does it smell so good?

At this time, Huo Wenxi came in personally holding tea.

When she served tea to the two of them, she also saw two checks on the table.

Seeing the number above, she couldn't help but shrink her eyes.

"I can probably sense your company's sincerity, but I need to see the contract."

Zhou Ziheng looked at Nie Anda.

"Of course, we are here with sincerity. After you read the contract, if you are not satisfied with any of the clauses, we can talk about it again."

As Nie Anda spoke, he picked up the check for five million and personally stuffed it into the bag at Zhou Ziheng's chest.

"But please accept this gift. I reiterate that it is just a gift. It has nothing to do with whether the contract between us can be successfully signed."

(End of this chapter)